Dealing With Alcohol and Drug Problems: Consequences of Use
If you are wondering about your drink or drug use, have you considered the following?
Psychological consequences
- Are you using drink or drugs to escape from a problem which you might be able to solve if you faced it? If so you may be perpetuating your shyness, anxiety, depression, unhappiness etc. rather than dealing with it for once and all.
- Drink and drugs don't permanently change our world. They allow us to feel a temporary confidence or happiness, but the effect is usually one of borrowed time. Often the unhappiness or anxiety returns even more strongly once the effects wear off.
- Drink and drugs can cause psychological problems by themselves. Alcohol can commonly cause depression; drugs can also cause depression, or can trigger anxiety or even psychosis (loss of reality).
Social consequences
- Drink and drugs are often seriously expensive, so uncontrolled use can lead to financial problems.
- You can quite easily end up in trouble with the law. Although drinking alcohol is legal, it can lead to assault and driving when drunk which are not. Similarly, although the law may turn a blind eye to personal use of certain drugs, this attitude is not consistent. Sentences for any supplying can be heavy and unpredictable. Any conviction for drink or drugs offences may severely limit the opportunities open to you in the future.
- Pronounced use of drink or drugs tends to rigidly define social groups, so it may limit your circle of friends.
- Continual or large scale use of alcohol has a bad effect on most people's sex-life.
Physical Consequences
- Drink definitely lowers people's ability to resist harming themselves when they have problems.
- Drink can lower people's inhibitions against hurting others.
- Drink greatly lessens people's ability to say no to unwanted sexual encounters which they would have definitely avoided had they been sober.
- Many serious accidents are drink and drug related.
- There are long-term health risks.
All these things will not happen to everybody. You may be lucky and avoid any serious mishaps. However, all these consequences are seen routinely enough by anyone involved in welfare work to suggest they are not exaggerated or unusual.